When Herm Edwards welcomed everyone aboard the Arizona State football train, the passenger cars were largely empty.

Few were sold on him as the engineer to keep the "New Leadership Model" on the tracks, much less steer it to the destination — top 3 in the Pac-12, top 15 in the nation — set forth by ASU Vice President for Athletics Ray Anderson when he hired Edwards, his long-time friend, to replace Todd Graham.

A year later, even with ASU finishing with the same 7-6 record it had in Graham's final season, the train is beginning to fill.

The steady guidance of the 64-year-old Edwards combined with an improved cohesiveness throughout athletics in support of football makes 7-6 in 2018 after a 31-20 loss in the Las Vegas Bowl feel more like a test run for a bullet train than the Hooterville Cannonball chugging its way to nowhere beyond Pixley.

The sample size is obviously small, and ASU fans know a good start for a new coach is not a guarantee of anything long term. But answers so far to key questions about Edwards suggest that sustained success might actually be attainable.

Too old

This concern never gained traction because Edwards, whose father died at 61, has worked hard to maintain his health.

His early-morning workouts are legendary and stand up to scrutiny.

"When he says he gets in here at 4:30, it's every morning," defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales says. "I've come a couple of times just to see if he's here. He's here."

Edwards, who played 10 years in the NFL, claims he still has one good hit left in him. No one wants to see what the aftermath of that would be, but there is no reason to think Edwards, six weeks younger than Anderson, can't keep up with his energetic boss.

Out of football for too long

Edwards insists he was essentially still coaching in his decade as an NFL analyst for ESPN. Certainly he had the technology and time to take a deep dive into what works and what doesn't without the ramifications from daily decision-making like in his years coaching the New York Jets (2001-05) and Kansas City Chiefs (2006-08).

After the initial plan to retain Billy Napier and Phil Bennett as coordinators didn't pan out, Edwards hired Gonzales from San Diego State and promoted Rob Likens to offensive coordinator. The overall staff is a blend of five holdovers, including Dave Christensen who was a non-coaching analyst in 2017, and four newcomers.

By the end of spring practice, it was apparent that practices were well-organized, efficient and refreshingly free of the secretive paranoia that envelopes many programs today. Access was so open to the public that night practices almost became like a family picnic, which is not to suggest necessary work wasn't getting done.

"I don't have to explain things anymore," Edwards says. "Before it was training. You don't understand this, and I know why. I've got to explain it. It took them awhile to buy in, now everybody is in."

Edwards coaching in college for the first time since he was an assistant at San Jose State in 1989 was never an issue because he's moved so far beyond that in his coaching knowledge and communication acumen. Now, it seems obvious that Edwards, the kind of dad that everyone wants, would be a hit with Gen Z.

"If you think about the human organism that is 18- to 22-year-olds, the way they are packaged and wired, you see all-time high levels of anxiety," says Jean Boyd, ASU senior executive senior associate athletic director. "What better presence to have on your sideline than one that is consistent, not lots of highs and lows and stays the course.

Or that Edwards was the guy Anderson wanted all along for his first football head coaching hire since coming to ASU in January 2014. It took less than a week after Graham's firing on Nov. 26, 2017, for the Edwards' hiring to be all but finalized, and he was introduced as the new coach on Dec. 4, launching the train theme.

"I'm on the train," Edwards said that day. "And I'm gonna ride it. I will ride this train until it stops. It's not gonna stop. If you wanna board on a little bit later, we got a seat for you. Might not be comfortable, but you'll have a seat."

What appeared to some as Anderson doing a solid for his buddy actually is turning out to be the reverse. Edwards had an itch to return to coaching but only in what he deemed the right circumstance, which he had confidence through Anderson that ASU offered.

"Todd (Graham) did a fantastic job of building a foundation in a lot of areas," Boyd says. "We needed to move forward in an elevated manner, and Ray actually had a plan in mind. People are starting to see some of the unique characteristics Herm brings and believe maybe this wasn't just some fluke or cronyism-based hire.

"We couldn't do the same thing we tried over and over. We had to try something different, a blended approach of the pro side with the collegiate. I don't think many schools are out there packaging those things together at a level we are."

Anderson, under contract through September 2022, remains a man in a hurry to accomplish his capital project and competitive goals at ASU. Football is central to everything from revenue to donor and fan enthusiasm so his legacy now is inseparable from Edwards' success.

Front office

Under the blended pro/college model, Edwards has front-office support from a group headed by Anderson, Boyd, Scottie Graham, Tim Cassidy and Nate Wainwright.

Then there is a player personnel/development staff that is fronted by Al Luginbill, Marcus Castro-Walker and Marcus Alleyne.

Wainwright is Edwards' special assistant, a role he also held when Edwards was coaching with the Jets and Chiefs.

New analysts this season include seven-time All-Pro Kevin Mawae and former ASU All-America Derek Hagan. Danny White, considered ASU's greatest football player, still is a consultant and Sun Devil Club ambassador.

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The point being that ASU is going all-in on football like never before and using its staff's NFL experience as a selling point for recruits.

When wide receiver N'Keal Harry recently announced he was leaving a year early for the NFL draft, it was "a family decision well-informed by people who actually know," Boyd says. "I see more and more of that happening."

There are group decisions being made from the type of players to recruit to when spring practice should be held to what analytics are worth investing in all with the big picture in mind. "We talk about letting egos go so we all have the same goal, winning the Pac-12 championship and beyond," Boyd says.

Staff stability

Graham mostly kept his coaching staff together for four seasons, the first three producing a combined 28 wins.

Then Mike Norvell left in 2016 to become head coach at Memphis, taking Chris Ball and Chip Long (now at Notre Dame) with him.

ASU had five new assistant coaches including one coordinator in 2016 and five more changes including both coordinators in 2017.

It was a turnstile that Anderson made among his talking points in making a head coaching change, and it appears that ASU will go into 2019 with virtually the same staff for the first time since 2015.

Likens says Edwards "hires guys then he backs off. He lets you sink or swim. When you start to sink, he holds a hand out there, helps you up and tries to guide you along. He honestly cares about you and wants you to be better. It's not just the flat-line results with him."

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"We have a really good staff," Gonzales says. "They're the right kind of people. I would trust anybody on this staff with my kids and that's not always the case. If we can keep some continuity then you have an opportunity to build something special."

Courting California

No matter how solid the foundation Edwards and company have built this season, their success ultimately depends on recruiting, specifically in-state and perhaps even more importantly in California.

And recruiting is where the new staff is making the most head-turning impact.

Edwards grew up in northern California, attending California and San Diego State.

"I think it's the strongest the ASU brand has been in southern California in a long time," Gonzales says. "In my whole time at San Diego State and New Mexico, I think I ran into ASU a couple of times. Now the ASU brand is all over the place," not just for athletics but the university in general.

Edwards' first full recruiting class is ranked No. 31 nationally by 247 Sports. The majority of the class signs Wednesday and already includes seven Californians headed by quarterbacks Jayden Daniels and Joey Yellen. That's on top of four true freshmen defensive players from California starting this season led by Pac-12 Freshman Defensive Player of the Year Merlin Robertson.

"You've got to do what's right for the team," Edwards says of opting for talent over experience in deciding on playing time. "Some coaches fear that, I don't. It's good for this foundation of what we're trying to build, and I will do that every time."

ASU had some success recruiting the Inland Empire early in the Dennis Erickson coaching era but now is blanketing the coast in a way that hasn't happened since the early 1980s when, not coincidentally, Luginbill was ASU's defensive coordinator.

Edwards is more than the closer when it comes to recruiting.

ASU is employing caravan recruiting, especially in California, with almost the entire coaching staff going to some homes. "That could really backfire if you go in there with a very aggressive approach," Gonzales says. "Coach Edwards makes it a very relaxed atmosphere. He's got that perfect smile. I tease him all the time, 'How long did it take you to practice that?' It's perfect every time."

But with Edwards, nothing seems blatantly rehearsed or contrived. He's so comfortable in his own skin that others around him are free to be themselves.

"He's respectful and respectable," Boyd says. "You can't discount an African American coach who is from the west coast being on the west coast in homes that are African American as well. That has some power to it. There's an inherent trust factor not everyone can bring in the door."

Gonzales believes that ASU has the pieces in place including facilities, recruiting and player development to get back to the Rose Bowl or another major bowl for the first time since the 1996 season. He even doesn't rule out making the College Football Playoff.

"We don't have the tradition USC and UCLA have yet," Gonzales says. "They have 33 million within a gas tank of recruiting. We don't have that, but we have 33 million within five hours, and they can't take them all."

Boyd agrees. "When we talk in private circles about what we can get done, there's no lid. Really the vision is limitless. My expectations have been exceeded in terms of what we've laid foundationally and what the prospects are for the future."

Edwards and Anderson will turn 70 during the 2023-24 school year. That's five football seasons from now. By then, time will tell if the train reaches the desired station or derails somewhere along the way.